My favorite teachers.

I've had a ton of teachers in my life.

I've had awesome teachers, both at church and school.

But I think my favorite teachers are the ones younger than me....the ones I'm supposed to teach.

My life has been changed radically by teenagers that show me what love means, kindergarten students who show me how to accept others, and special needs kids that show me faith that blows my mind.

Those "teachers" make my life.

The opposite of hate

I think perhaps my least favorite word is hate.  I have seen hate consume and destroy more people than drugs, sex, or greed.  One of my major goals in life is to not hate.  Sure people can hate me, more have than I would probably like to know, but I control whether or not I hate them back.  In my life I try to seek the opposite of hate.  I would contend that the opposite of hate is not only love...but forgiveness.

God give me the strength to forgive those who wrong me...even when they don't ask for it or deserve it.  

May forgiveness and understanding be my first reaction...not anger.  

May love grown in my heart...not bitterness.

May peace be what I seek....no strife.  Unity...not division.

May people see You more....me less.

Draaaaaaaaaama

I'm the kinda guy that loves a good drama.  When watching a movie/tv show, the more drama the happier I am.  I love the over the top heart wrenching problems and all such nonsense on the screen.  However....I would prefer said drama be kept exactly there, on the screen.

There are people everywhere that not only enjoy drama in their lives, they thrive on it.  They are not happy unless they are not only causing drama, but dragging everyone around them into it.  They use every medium they can(facebook, texting, emails, face to face) to drag as many people as they can into their mess.

Drama is like a disease.  It's contagious.  It consumes your thoughts and actions.  It can completely exhaust you. The more I choose not to get involved in other people's drama the happier I am.

Psalm 120:6 says "Too long have I lived among those who hate peace".  I feel like that with dramatic people. What's the opposite of drama?  Peace.  I need more of that in my life.  I don't want to hear your drama....unless you are Meryl Streep or one of the cast of Parenthood....in which case I am all ears.

What love is..

A high school student showed me what love is today.

There's a girl in one of my student's classes who has always impressed me.  Let's call her Ann.  I've heard her quoting the Bible a lot, I've seen Ann stand up for her faith in our class making it obvious that she is a professed Christian.  Ann is one of the few girls in the class that dresses appropriately and she sits in the front, answers all the questions, and never gets in trouble.  There's another boy...from all outward appearances he is her complete opposite.  We'll call him Drew.  He sits in the very back where he texts under the table.  Drew is a freshman and has earrings and a tattoo.  I've already seen him go to the principal's office twice for pranking people.

Today when the teacher was reading off names for a group activity I heard Ann's name and was excited!  I knew that someone in my group would talk to my student and include him with Ann in the group.  I was so excited that I barely even knew that Drew was in the group too.  Get ready for it!  Here's the part about love.

I sat at that table for an hour and watched Ann say absolutely nothing to my student, I saw her not only not encourage him but ignore him altogether, I saw her insist that they not include him because he would make their group slower.  I was so disgusted that I left the table for a break....when I came back I saw someone kneeling down beside my student.  It was Drew.  Drew was talking to him about his favorite sports teams.  I was even more shocked when I saw drew take hold of my student's hands and help him finish painting his part of the project while talking about how involved Drew is in a youth group.

At the end of the class my student told me it was his favorite thing about high school and he was excited to come back.  Ann's scripture quoting, straight A's, modest dress, and boldness about her faith are awesome....but none of those things made an impact on my kid.  Drew's love did.

When I have kids.....I'd rather have a Drew than an Ann.

Mommy I want to have special powers

Ever since I have been little I thought it would be awesome to be invisible....to be able to walk among people without them knowing I was there.  I used to put on a blanket and pretend it was an invisible cloak and walk quietly around the house.

Well I have learned that there is a machine that makes that very thing happen...well it doesn't work on everyone but I'd say it works on 80% of people...at least 80% of teenagers.  You just sit in it and it makes it where you can go down a hallway and they won't see you, talk to you, make eye contact with you, or even more out of your way.  In fact most times it will be as if you don't exist....


It looks a little something like this...

Sometimes revealing the invisible starts with "hi my name is_____, it's nice to meet you"

Return

I have returned to the blogging world




(maybe)






Now that I have a set schedule I intent to work this into it.




(we'll see)




So(for now) Welcome back blog!  I have missed you.

Gamers have nothing on parking lots

So today after a long day at work I was super stressed so I went out today to buy a video game...since I haven't done that in forever.  I went to game stop and after about five minutes of being surrounded by people talking about video games as if they were the most serious of issues in the world I decided to go to best buy.  I was forced to park at the very end of the parking lot because apparently they were having some sale.  After getting halfway through the parking lot I noticed that I was no longer stressed and utterly enjoying the gorgeous weather. ..I turned around sat on my car for a while in the parking lot and just enjoyed the night.

Who needs these things??